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2015 Twins Game Logs, Minnesota Twins, MLB

2015 Game 44: Boston Red Sox vs. Minnesota Twins – Memorial Day Edition

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I hope everyone has had an enjoyable and agreeable Memorial Day weekend. I'm sure there will be plenty of pomp and spectacle during the actual game, but whenever you get a chance today, maybe take a moment and quietly reflect on the holiday and those whose memory it honors.

I was thinking about trying to make yesterday's game in Chicago, but other vague plans (which didn't materialize) and threat of weather kept us away.  A shame as it would have been a good one.

Anyway, now that the Twins aren't playing Chicago, I can actually watch them again.  Score.  They leave the Prairie State with a 4-1 road trip in their back pocket, and six games at home in front of them, where they've enjoyed a .700 record (2nd in the AL).

They'll open up that homestand with 3 games against the 3rd place Red Sox.  Someone posted a link recently that mirrored the exasperation this team has been causing me.  They're just not supposed to be this good, you know?  Regardless, I will continue to cautiously watch, and enjoy the ride.

Happy Memorial Day, you guys.

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2015 Twins Game Recaps, Minnesota Twins, MLB

Game 43: Twins 8, White Sox 1

I keep waiting to wake up from this dream, but it hasn't happened yet. The Twins will start Memorial Day with the third-best record in the AL, only three games out of first place and in position to be host to the AL wildcard game.

After a 1-6 start, the Twins have now gone 24-12 and have outscored their opponents 181-139. They finished this road trip at 4-1 to give them they're first winning road trip of the season. After starting 1-5 on the road, the Twins have since gone 10-7. They've also played three more road games than home games this season. They are 2-7 against the Tigers on the season and 23-11 against everyone else. They are 3-3 vs. the Royals and have a winning record against everyone else.

They've done all this without any truly great performances outside of closer Glen Perkins, whose perfect start to the season would go largely unnoticed if he didn't already have 16 save opportunities.

Other than Perkins, the closest thing the Twins have to legitimate All-Star candidates were on display Sunday. Brian Dozier led off the game with a home run and then added a three-run shot later in the game to essentially put the game out of reach. Dozier now has 9 HRs on the season to lead all AL second basemen and is on pace for career highs in HRs, 2Bs, 3Bs, RBIs and even runs scored. He finished second in the AL in runs scored last year with 112.

The offensive firepower allowed Kyle Gibson to cruise through his latest good start, with this one probably being his best. He went 8 innings, only allowing an opposite field solo home run to Jose Abreu when the Twins led 5-0, and struck out a career-high-tying eight batters with 0 walks. Gibson is now 4-3 with a 2.72 ERA. His peripheral numbers on the season aren't anything to write home about, but he's heating up at the right time. He's 3-1 with a 1.32 ERA in May, which includes a 21-5 K-BB ratio after having a 6-12 K-BB ratio in April.

2015 Twins Game Logs

Game 43: Minnesota @Chicago

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After last night's game, Chicago ace Chris has 2 losses on the year and both of 'em have come courtesy of the Twins. Game three will decide who takes the Memorial Day weekend series.

Today's matchup features Kyle Gibson (3-3, 2.98 ERA, 1.32 WHIP) and Jose Quintana (2-4, 4.13 ERA, 1.35 WHIP).

Gibson's coming off consecutive losses for the first time this season, though the 2-1 loss against Detroit on May 12 wasn't his doing (5 hits, 1 earned run, 0 BB and 6 K's in 7 innings). He wasn't nearly that good on the 17th against Tampa (8 hits, 3 earned runs, 2 BB and 2 K's in 5 innings). Hopefully, we get a bounce-back game from Kyle.

He'll be opposed by Quintana who's coming off a string of five games where he's allowed 2 earned runs or less while averaging 6.2 innings pitched, 6.1 K's and 2 BB per game. During that stretch, he's 2-3 due to a notable lack of offense (a total of 10 runs scored in those five games). His last start against Cleveland on the 19th wasn't great, allowing 8 hits and 4 BB while only striking out 4. Hopefully, we get another game like that and the Twins can put up some runs.

2015 Twins Game Recaps

Game 41 recap: White Sox 3 Twins 2.

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It started with a bunt.

White Sox starter Jeff Samardzija was struggling in the first and second inning. He was running counts 3-2 on batters and the Twins got 2 runs in the first and Ed Escobar led off the 2nd with a walk. Then a bunt.  A first pitch bunt by Eddie Rosario halted all that momentum. Sure he was trying for a base hit and was credited for a sac but that pitch, that play seemed to have thing click on for The Shark. Next batter Aaron Hick swung at the first pitch and hit a lazy fly ball and Santana struck out and that was all she wrote for the Twins offense.

Phil Hughes pitched well except for the 4th inning where the wheels fell off. A walk, a defensive misplay and a misplaced pitch led to 2 runs.  Hughes was lifted after 7 inning even though he had 89 pitches  (72 strikes!) and was in control. Aaron Thompson came in and walk the second batter he faced and that run came around to score Twins lose 3-2.

NOTES

- Joe Mauer stole third base in the first inning and it led to sac fly by Plouffe. Mauer is 3 for 4 in stealing 3rd. His last attempt was in 2010.

- Mauer has 25 RBI this season, a team high.

- Mauer has 9 doubles, giving him 12 extra base hits this year. That is 4th most on the Twins (Dozier, Plouffe, Hunter)

2015 Twins Game Logs

Game 40: Twins at Pirates

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Mike Pelfrey v Jeff Locke

This squad has been pretty fun to watch over the last couple of weeks, so here's hoping that trend continues.

Go Twins!

Lineups:

Twins:
1. Santana SS
2. Dozier 2B
3. Mauer 1B
4. Plouffe! 3B
5. Hunter RF
6. Suzuki C
7. Hicks CF
8. Robinson LF
9. Pelfrey P

Pirates:
1. Harrison RF
2. Walker 2B
3. McCutchen CF
4. Marte LF
5. Kang 3B
6. Alvarez 1B
7. Cervelli C
8. Mercer SS
9. Locke P

2015 Twins Game Recaps

Game 39: Twins 8, Pirates 5

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The Twins posted a nice albeit oddly uncomfortable win in their first inter-league game of the season, carpet bombing the F-Bomb by scoring early and often on Pirate's starter and former Twin Francisco Liriano. Brian Dozier led off the Twins offensive attack with a solo homer in the first. In a wild six-run second inning, Suzuki started things off by scoring on a wild pitch. Trevor Plouffe capped the inning with a two-run blast that in between saw Joe Mauer drive in three runs with a bases-clearing single. The Twins ended their scoring in the third when Suzuki crossed home on a ground-ball double play off the bat of Robinson. With eight on the board and a seven run lead after three, it seemed like the game was in the bag, but this is baseball and there would be cause for concern before this one ended.

The Pirates got on the board in the bottom of the second when Jose Tabata sort of singled on a two-out ground ball that Dozier should have handled to end the inning but didn't, allowing Jung Ho Kang to score from third base. The Bucs added another run in the fourth inning when Pedro Alvarez literally boated a blast off Nolasco over the right-field wall and into a docked runabout. With two runners in scoring position and one out in the bottom of the fifth, the Pirates chalked another run on a 6-3 putout off the bat of Kang, driving in Neil Walker. Nolaco gave up another run in the sixth inning when Walkers double to right field with runners on the corners scored Josh Harrison. With Aaron Thompson relieving in the seventh, Marte scored the last Pirate run on a Harrison single.

Damn near a quarter of the way through the season, the Twins find themselves in fairly unfamiliar territory, holding third place a half game behind the Tigers and just three games the behind division-leading Royals. I have to admit that I'm enjoying the ride so far, even as I wonder how long the engine will hold up when it's sort of low on oil and coolant, and the gas gauge is broken so I'm not sure if we're going to run out of fuel next week or next month, and at least a couple of the tires are nearly bald and could blow out any time now. There are problems with this team's pitching and defense (Danny Santana has ten of the Twins' 25 errors this year, contribution greatly to his team-low -0.7 WAR) but so far the offense has been good enough to get us where we are - five games above .500 and averaging 4.5 runs per game with a +2 differential. It ain't exactly championship caliber, but it's good enough to make things interesting and keep the puppy photographers in business for the time being.

2015 Twins Game Logs

Game 39: Twins @ Pirates

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Ugh, Nolasco (3-1, 6.38 ERA, 4.85 xFIP) vs. F-Bomb (1-3, 2.96 ERA, 3.19 xFIP)

I am....not so confident in this matchup other than the fact that Nolasco gets to pitch against an NL team. I don't know, maybe it'll help make him less 'ugh' and more 'meh'?

I haven't paid much attention, but it looks like Liriano is generally pitching pretty well this year, striking dudes out all over the place. He does have a .215 BABIP, though, so he might be getting a bit lucky on the balls that make it out into the field. Hopefully that is the case and that average heads north a bit tonight.

In addition to a mid-season interleague matchup, the Wolves have their annual "playoff" tonight (7:30 on ESPN) in which they participate in a selection of ping-pong balls to determine which crappy team gets the good picks in the draft. This event will set off a solid month of speculating just which incorrect pick Flip will make. Should be fun!